A week or so ago I wrote a diary in response to Adam Nagourney’s puff piece in the NYT cautioning that Dems could lose a Senate seat in Hawaii, with the retirement of Democrat Daniel Akaka.

As frequently happens, those who commented on that diary brought insight and additional information — far beyond what I’d initially included. One commenter, “Paiagirl,” was especially good. Unfortunately her remarks occurred late in the thread, after the diary was moved off the front page. In order to bring her comments the attention they deserve, I’m cutting & pasting here. [Paia is a funky town on Maui, not too far from where I live, but I don't know Paiagirl.]

Linda Lingle also is a very vindictive woman. She got mad at Maui County because after having her as mayor, a majority in our county voted for her opponent. She took it out on us.

She also invested $3 billion in some junk bonds, leaving our subsequent Gov Abercrombie unable to access the money during this economic downturn. She left the accounts in shambles as though no one was DOING the finances for the state.

She doesn’t keep her word in negotiations. We’ve gone in, negotiated, come to an agreement, given up substantial concessions, and 2 hours later Lingle completely abrogates the agreement.

Unfortunately, she is a pretty smart cookie and good at presenting herself publicly, which makes her extremely dangerous because behind that public face is a voraciously ambitious woman who will do anything to advance her career and has absolutely no ethics.

In November, this year’s voters will be reminded about one of Lingle’s “achievements, ” the “Superferry” . [As a favor to her business friends, Lingle rammed through an inter-island "Superferry," without environmental impact studies. The project later cratered, resulting in a massive loss of money]:

[In conjunction with the Superferry] she spent $40million on Chinese-made barges in an attempt to circumvent environmental law. The effect of her ignoring environmental law was that the Superferry took over our interisland freight dock and they tore down the shed that kept our partial loads out of the rain. Virtually EVERYTHING comes into Maui via interisland barge. (food goods, building materials, etc) Those tax-payer funded barges are still taking up space at our docks – where berths are at a premium since we are constrained on expanding our docs.

As an ironic note, yesterday’s paper featured a story about new proposals to re-establish a Superferry, done right this time, I assume. I’ll look forward to Paiagirl’s comments on this matter.

As to the current crop of Hawaii Democrats: Mazie Hirono, our present Congresswoman, is running in the Democratic primary for Akaka’s seat. Our senior Senator, Daniel Inouye, basically runs the state.

Inouye wields a lot of behind the scenes power as far as determining who gets National DCCC money and so on. But at the state level, he can’t do much because our State democratic party has no money and is filled with progressives who aren’t going to go for someone just because Inouye picks them.

Mazie’s just one of those people, who everyone likes – progressives, unions, even Inouye. (Here in Hawaii, the ILWU HATES progressives, so this is 2 very different constituencies)

But true dat, that Inouye will support ABC (anyone but case) Case was so arrogant as to run against a well-loved incumbent, Akaka. In fact, I’ve seen Inouye support a REPUBLICAN county councilmember because he still held a grudge against the guy running against the Republican. And Inouye managed not to get kicked out of the Democratic pary even though we have a rule against endorsing people from other parties.

Anyway that’s the latest from this end of the country. Thank you, Paiagirl, for all the info you provided.

[Paia is a funky town on Maui, not too far from where I live, but I don't know Paiagirl.]

Mauimom, what makes you think you don’t know Paiagirl? Try walking around in an FDL t-shirt, and don’t be surprised if someone you know says “Oh, you are an FDL member? What’s your handle?” and they tell you “OMG, I’m ‘Paiagirl’.”

I keep waiting for a parishioner to come up to me and ask “Do you ever read FDL?”

Watched the same sun set. Pretty cool “Not much gets by me” is a crack up. I hope that the Islands have a great year 2012. I am insisting on a better year despite the Mayan calender. Crashed twice today while skateboarding today. No pain no gain hip pointer, elbow knee and middle finger.

I have met Mazie and found her to be a nice person. The problem as I see it is that she is supported by Sen. Inouye who is cold and ruthless ‘lifetime’ politician. His best friend was the late Republican Senator Ted Stevens whom he referred to as his “brother”. Because of his support for Ted Stevens, Inouye has violated the Hawaii Dems platform (more than once)but they won’t touch him.

The people desperately want change but I don’t know if Mazie can provide that with Inouye in charge of her.

On one hand, I agree with you, but there’s also a downside. I don’t want parishioners to ever fear that if they talk to me, their stories are going to end up at FDL.

I also don’t want anyone here to be confused about me and my congregation. When I write and comment here, it’s just me and not the congregation I serve. Some there may agree with what I write here, but there are just as many who’d disagree — which is what makes congregational life so lively. (At least at my congregation. Churches of the Fundy persuasion are not nearly as diverse.)

I once asked a bunch (it was an unofficial survey) of congragants why they picked the church they were going to. Most of the said because it was close by, where a friend or family member(s) went or because of how the church looked.
I thought it was pretty interesting.

I think that we have to realize that over half the Hawai’i Dems are really chicken Republicans. [snip]
Although, after experiencing Lingle’s vindictiveness as Mayor of Maui, most of us in Maui County saw through her polished image into the reality of her over-weaning and ruthless ambition.
But I don’t blame anyone who didn’t live in Maui county for voting for Lingle. She create a slick image of reasonableness (at total odds with her vindictive and irresponsible governing).
And at that time I knew nothing about Mazie Hirono. Now that I’ve known her and know her voting record, I’ve been completely won over.

Maybe she’ll come in here and do a diary answering the questions you’ve raised.

As with many places, “it’s complicated.” Of course we’d like to sweep out nasty ole’ Inouye, but ain’t gonna happen. We’ll just have to wait for him to retire.

OK … now I’m exposing myself…I’ll be there Monday. If you can’t stay all Monday (and Tuesday and…) then the best time to come is between 11am and 1pm on Monday. More info at http://occupymaui.org/tehiva.php

The family’s lawyer has filed for a stay but the judicial system more or less “robosigned” and did not accept it. We have only a small window of opportunity to get some kind of bill before the Hawai’i state legislature to maybe do something like Washington State did which was to require mediation.

I have the pink (pink is Maui’s color) Occupy Maui shirts still if you want one. You must know me but I confess I am not sure who you are. I am the same person who was on HP. I’m sure we know each other since it is a small island.

There is so much difference between Mazie and Inouye. And Mazie has her own power base. Although, as I said earlier, Inouye can control the national DCCC and Senatorial money, he can’t control our State Democrats (and it wouldn’t do him much good if he did).

Part of governing, especially in the Senate is to remain on good terms and work with your party, caucus etc. (and prior to the recent obstructive behavior of the GOP, to work with the other party too)

That does not mean that Hirono will be “under the thumb” etc. She will have her own very strong progressive positions.

But as you know, the progressives are in the minority – but that is all the more reason to elect Mazie Hirono.

I’m not going to badmouth Ed Case because I don’t want to do anything to help Lingle, but he is a self-described “Blue Dog”. Ask yourself who the Blue Dogs have been voting with lately.

vv late to the party, but I read the comments at RichardSilverstein.com and it appears that that is Judy Chu, not Maizie. I can’t link to the comment and there are a lot of them, so I am quoting the exchange below:

“mudder says:
August 15, 2011 at 8:12 PM

Although I don’t doubt your’s and Miriam’s assessment that that is Judy Chu, where is Democrat Mazie Hirono hiding in the photo? Days before the photo was published, Move Over AIPAC said she was on the trip.
Reply

Richard Silverstein says:
August 15, 2011 at 10:26 PM

A Hawaii resident called her office & a staffer told the caller that Hirono is not on the trip. This is confirmed by Michael Brown of IMEU, a reputable source. That’s why I’ve marked Hirono as unconfirmed. I don’t think she’s there at all.”

That caption saying “Mazie Hirono (uncomfirmed)” is wrong. If you are talking about the woman wearing a purple blazer in the right front, no way is that Mazie. Too tall. Face very different. I contacted one of her campaign people and he said she did NOT go on this.

Yes I remember following you on HP. Don’t get over there much anymore since AOL took over and practically every story is moderated to death. Kinda takes the interactivity out of it when you have to wait 1/2 and hour for your post to show and another 1/2 hour for a response.

Hmm…I can’t let that go by. Yes Lingle and Case are both war hawks. Yes, they’ll both probably vote with the GOP but here’s the difference:

Lingle will vote GOP 100% of the time. She nominated Sarah Palin, for heavens sake, and all other things aside, Lingle is a smart, educated woman and if she could bring herself to fall in line with the GOP and suck up to Palin…well, she’ll be falling in line every time.

Case will vote with the GOP on appropriations but he does have a decent environmental record so he’s not going to be voting with the GOP to abolish the EPA or defund it like they want to do. Lingle will.

Having said they are both war hawks, Lingle has taken it to extremes by calling out the military and threatening us on Maui with being “detained” by Homeland Security if we paddled into the Superferry “security area” that she created in our crowded harbor – which is home to 2 canoe clubs and a surf zone frequented by our local kids. I can’t see Case doing something so insane and oppressive.

They’re both corporatists so we could expect more hand outs to banks and so on but probably Case would not be handing out welfare to the oil companies. Lingle would.

I’ve heard different but my experience with Ed Case is that he continues to maintain dialog with people who oppose him and continues to be courteous (as opposed to Lingle who descends into threats). Again, in my own experience, I have not found Case to break his word and have found Lingle not to be a woman of her word.

So bottom line, it would be a tragedy for the progressives if either Case or god forbid Lingle were elected but on the whole, if it came down to those two, Case is much better.

This isn’t just about robo-signed documents (which these also were). This is about fraudulent and forged “Assignment of Mortgage” documents fabricated in order to effectuate a non-judicial foreclosure. Every Assignment of Mortgage document I have reviewed (100′s) are the same – fraudulent and ultimately VOID. Without a valid assignment of mortgage the “Trust” trying to foreclose and evict has no standing. Without standing the courts had no jurisdiction to order a writ of possession or ejectment. See http://www.deadlyclear.com – THE REMICs HAVE FAILED!

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the proposed settlement between the Department of Justice, the State attorneys general, and mortgage servicers regarding mortgage fraud and the economic crisis.

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